Episode 2.17 - Theresa May

Episode 17 features Theresa May, Cleveland based educator and trumpet player. We talk with Theresa about juggling all her careers, Mourning [A] Blkstar, the Chromatic Brass Collective, and more! Transcripts to all podcast episodes are created by Hollyn Slykhuis and are posted on our website!

To learn more about Theresa, the groups she is a part of, and the resources she recommends, check out the links below!

Theresa’s website: https://www.theresamaytrumpet.com/ 

Mourning [A] BLKstar: https://mourningablkstar.com/ 

Chromatic Brass Collective (CBC): https://www.chromaticbrass.org/ 

Brass Music by Black Composer of Aaron Horne - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brass-music-of-black-composers-aaron-horne/1132776457 

Find local composers in the community and start there first!!

Jonathan Posthuma (I'll be premiering their work for trumpet and electronics)-https://www.jonathanposthuma.com/about.html

[consortium members for a new solo trumpet + electronics work from Paul Klee : Painted Songs!

members include:

Evan Fowler (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)

https://www.efowlertrumpet.com/

Garrett Fuller (Atlanta, Georgia)

https://garrettfullermusic.com/

Connor Johnson (Lansing, Michigan) https://connorj799.wixsite.com/connorjohnsontrumpet

Theresa May (Cleveland, Ohio)

https://www.theresamaytrumpet.com/home

Isaac Mayhew (Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota)

https://www.isaacmayhewcomposition.com/

Over the next few months, I'll be finishing a work for solo trumpet which will be performed by consortium members in 2022.]

Mourning [A] BLKstar collab with Christoph Winkler's dance company in Berlin:https://christoph-winkler.com/en/productions/we-are-going-to-mars-suite/

Full Transcript

Carrie Blosser 0:03

Welcome to Diversify the Stand. Together we build a community to listen and learn from the stories and experiences of passionate musicians. I'm Carrie Blosser.

Ashley Killam 0:12

And I'm Ashley Killam. In our second season, we talk with musicians, performers, educators, historians, and entrepreneurs to expand how we think of the music we perform and follow non-traditional career paths. Trumpet player, educator, and founding member and Treasurer of the Chromatic Brass Collective Theresa May joins us for episode 17. Classically-trained Teresa has become a player in all different musical scenes. We get to talk with her a lot about her teaching, the groups she's a part of, and learn more about Chromatic Brass Collective.

Carrie Blosser 0:45

Thank you, Theresa, so much for joining us.

Theresa May 0:47

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Carrie Blosser 0:49

So we wanted to start off today's interview with asking you how you got started in music.

Theresa May 0:55

So my father was my very first trumpet teacher, and I picked up the cornet because my father played cornet growing up in the Salvation Army, that's where we went for church. And my dad was actually the bandmaster, that’s what they call them in the Salvation Army, the bandmaster is, like, the band leader, band conductor. The Salvation Army uses all the terms like the army. So he was the bandmaster in the church. And I used to always just pick up his cornet after church services. And I think he probably just got sick of me messing with his instrument. And so he started teaching me when I was nine, and then I just never stopped playing. So my father and my beginning started in the Salvation Army and brass band.

Ashley Killam 1:44

That’s so cool. And you’re classical-trained background, even though you've been playing a whole variety of everything now, right?

Theresa May 1:52

Yeah, I started in school and undergrad, I was a music therapy major for three and a half years. At the very last moment, I switched to performance. So from then on, I went the classical route. And I actually didn't study jazz until well after, I guess I can't even use “study.” I didn't really start playing jazz a lot until after grad school. I didn't play in jazz band in undergrad or graduate school, in graduate I was fully just classical. And I first just thought I wanted to win an orchestral job, but that changed soon after I started grad school. But yeah, strong classical background.

Ashley Killam 2:37

Great. And I don't know about Carrie, but I know probably Carrie, I first heard of you, when Chloe Swindler held a roundtable chat and Estela had you as a guest artist for her Black female players in the brass world series. And now, like, I can't imagine my life not having known you. A year and a half later, going through a pandemic, what, kind of, would those projects you are a part of, what have been kind of your big takeaways from that?

Theresa May 3:02

Yeah, I think one of the biggest things is that panels like that is still so important. I think most of us in that panel were very thankful for us being gathered in one virtual spot. I think many of us didn't know of one another. So I know for me, you know, being brown woman in our classical music world, in the music world, otherwise, it can feel lonely and lonesome sometimes, you feel like you're the only thing, a brown spot in the ensemble. So just seeing the virtual roomful of other brown faces that also were in your field, in my field, felt special because, you know, normally we're just all out here doing our own thing and trying to survive and make music and teach as much as possible. So it was in that moment that I felt way less alone. And now that I know that there are all these other people out here, and it's not just me in my little Cleveland bubble. So that was one of the biggest takeaways and also the, you know, representation matters still, always, forever. So just having the opportunity again, to work with Estela with her music educational program, I guess is the proper name for it. I'm very thankful for her having me and some other people teaching her students, that was very giving of her and I'm thankful for that.

Carrie Blosser 4:27

I think I checked out both Estela’s, like, kind of Ashley did, like, an after, I don't know, like, a blog post about it and I think it was so important and especially as everyone was, like, stuck at home anyway I thought was such a really great way to, like, find other connections in the music world too. And for me, I'm just like, yeah, I, women are also often, like, the only trumpet player and then I, like, look at it as what else can we do to, like, bring more togetherness in our sections and brass playing in general? I feel like there's just less representation of gender diversity and all of our background diversity, too.

Theresa May 5:01

Yeah, I agree. And starting with students, I think it's also really important. I just had a lesson on Thursday with, I think the student is eight or nine, really young, but really into trumpet and they actually practice. So that's, like, amazing to me. But the mom was like, I have a picture of Marie Speziale on my binder for my trumpet lesson schedule, because I recently had a lesson with her and it was just so inspiring. So when I look at that, on days that I absolutely don't feel like teaching or playing, it just helps me a little bit more. But my student’s mom saw the picture. And at first she was like, is that your grandmother? And I was like, no, but it's this person that you should know about. And she asked me to repeat Marie's name. And she said she was going to look into it and show her son, like, some footage, and you know, just teach him about her. And I thought that was cool. And that does not usually happen to me. So yeah, I was, you know, Estela’s students being able to work with me might be the only time they get to work with a Black woman trumpet player, which is, you know, it makes a huge difference.

Carrie Blosser 6:12

We're talking a little bit about gender diversity, but you play in a group called Mourning [A] Blkstar. Sorry, I should have worn my T-shirt. Sorry, I've got my T-shirt back on my wall there.

Theresa May 6:21

Yes!

Carrie Blosser 6:23

I'd love for you to talk about Mourning [A] Blkstar, and then a little bit about how you're balancing all of your different playing and teaching and everything that you do.

Theresa May 6:30

The first thing though, Mourning [A] Blkstar, so I joined the group in 2016. And it started off with, it was a vocal group at first, there were three vocalists and the person who founded the band RA Washington, he's a writer, a poet. He's authored several books. He used to own a bookstore. So this is kind of his brainchild. So he thought of the name. And I think him and one of the lead singers James Long, and James Long's daughter helped with our logo. So it started off with vocalist and RA. And then we added, I think they added a drummer, Pete Saudek, right after that. And then shortly after that, probably a couple years after that, Rafiq reached out to me. I had met him through a mutual friend. And at the time, I was playing in an Afro beat band called Hybrid Shakedown. And Rafiq saw me play out with them and messaged me and said, hey, would you like to build the horn section for Mourning [A] Blkstar? And I was like, I don't know, what, you know, what do y'all sound like? So I went to, they had an upcoming gig that same week, so I went to their gig, and after that, I was like, yeah, I absolutely would love to be a part of the band and, you know, make the horn section. So that was in 2016. And it's kind of evolved from there, we used to have two drummers, now we have one drummer, and our other drummer now plays guitar and keys. We play all original music, and it's really the first time I've been in a space with a group of people who allow me to be creative. And, you know, we accept everybody's ideas, some days are better than other days, with our acceptance levels. But generally, we're all able to add in any creative, any lyrics, any musical elements that we want to make it work. So it's hugely collaborative. And that's important to me, because that is my most favorite thing to do as a musician, is to collaborate with other people, and to be in a space where people are able to listen and allow you to, you know, try whatever we want. So I think it's really because of that, it's a really magical feeling and our music, I think you can hear and feel that in our music. We talk about, we call our music, Black music. That's what it feels like. I mean, most of us are Black in the band. Shout out to Pete, he's not Black, but we love him equally. And we just feel like it just comes from us in ourselves. We tell stories about our lives. Some people say it's political, and we don't really like to say that. I think it's just because sometimes brown bodies are politicized, but it's, you know, it's not political music. It's just Black music, it’s just our music. And I think it's because of how genuine our music is, we've been able to get really, really great performing opportunities. So we played at the Kennedy Center. We were on the cover of Wired Magazine. We have an upcoming project, I think it's due to come out in November, with a dance company in Berlin, and we're hoping to travel there in March. So it's been really, really, really great. So I hope that we just keep going and keep making new music.

Carrie Blosser 10:06

You're not only a performer, but you teach and you're performing in a lot of different styles. So I'd love to talk about, like, the balancing of all of those different elements together for other people who are maybe seeking out a career similar to yours.

Theresa May 10:19

And I think how I balance is constantly evolving, I feel like I'm constantly trying to find the best way to stay organized. But I guess the first thing is just to be organized. The binder that I was talking about this year that has the picture of Maria and I, that is like my life, and for me, it needs to be tangible. It needs to be papers that I can actually touch and write stuff into. So that's a really important thing that I've had to do more so now than then before. This is the first year I had to make, like, a daily schedule, I actually have a schedule that tells me when my alarm will go off, and when I should shower, when I should get that 30 minute walk in, and when I should probably eat lunch, like, it's really detailed—now, I've never had to do that before. But again, just being a part of trying to stay more organized. For me, playing in different groups and playing different genres is not particularly hard, I think because I enjoy it so much, and because I listen to so many different types of music, it kind of comes pretty natural, it doesn't feel foreign, and it doesn't feel forced to me. And maybe my practicing style may help that, I tend to practice things depending on what I have going on that week. So my practice material shifts a little bit, you know, I have the standard stuff, Arban’s, Concone. But if I have to, you know, have a week of playing lead, then I'm going to have to practice different stuff than if it's a week where I'm, you know, not having to play lead or jazz or anything. Yeah, I think that's it.

Carrie Blosser 12:05

You are a very busy human. And we are glad that you were able to make some time to visit with us and be on the podcast. You're great. I love you.

Theresa May 12:14

Thank you. Thanks for asking me, it's always fun.

Ashley Killam 12:16

And kind of talking about your brainchild and major, kind of, collaboration that you were a big part of is the Chromatic Brass Collective. We'd love to have you talk a little bit about the Chromatic Brass Collective, kind of how it started, some of the goals for the upcoming year.

Theresa May 12:34

Yeah. So from the initial panel, where most of us met from that, there was a constant conversation afterwards. Again, we were all just really thankful and grateful to be able to meet each other virtually, and knew that we didn't want it to end. After probably about six months of just going back and forth after the panel, it really came down to seven of us who were, like, really in it, and ready to do all the work to get the organization to be a thing. So it was myself, Brie, Navilla, Jazzie, Aliyah, Madison, and Yasmeen. And the seven of us really just kind of, you know, got together and did all the work to establish Chromatic Brass Collective. I think most of our initial conversations were in Facebook chat. And I remember that's how we developed our name, the Chromatic Brass Collective, someone threw it out, we had a poll, like a Facebook poll, and that was the one that won, so Chromatic Brass Collective, then we were like, sweet, we're a thing, we have a name now. I'm pretty sure Yasmeen is the one who came up with that name. And then Madison is the one who made our logo. So then from that, the seven of us just kind of, you know, got everything organized. So we now have a name, we have our logo, we have our mission. Our mission is to be a group of brass musicians to help support other brass musician women of color. So we knew after our initial meeting that we needed a space that we can all come to with people that could relate to us. And, you know, we could feel safe in this environment, because that's often not a thing, especially for our members that are in school. I just remember when I was in grad school it was a mess, for me, personally. School was fine, but the way that I felt on the emotional level was not fine. So to have this space is important still, and I wish I would have had the space when I was in grad school, I probably would have came out a bit more, I don't know, unscathed than, you know, what happened. So yeah, it's a very, very special organization really dear to my heart, I'm glad it exists. And it's open for any brass woman musician of color. Even if you're not exactly playing and performing right now we are here for y'all.

Ashley Killam 15:12

What, kind of, does the future look like for CDC?

Theresa May 15:15

Yeah, so the mentoring is what I'm really excited to do. Realistically, we’ll probably not be able to start that until end of 2022, more looking into 2023, so we can get everything organized. Right now we are gearing up for our first in-person performance at the International Women's Brass Conference, so we're really excited about that. It takes lots of organization, though. So right now, that is where most of our time and energy and efforts are going to, as well as we’ll likely commission composers with the money that we funded. We've already began using the money for, you know, organizational costs, like more storage, because you know, those virtual collabs with 20 people take up lots of space. So thankful that we have that now, updated our Google Drive. And what else have we recently done? Ah, so we are also getting ready to do a pretty big virtual rollout. So we were able to pay for audio editing and video editing, which, again, is a kind of a huge money endeavor for us. So we're thankful for everyone who donated. We’ll soon, I think the first video will come out in November, December. So that will start and kind of be the rollout to take us from 2021 into 2022, right up into our first in-person performance at the IWBC, which is very, very, very cool.

Ashley Killam 16:56

Well Carrie and I'll be at your IWBC performance, we'll have, like, foam fingers. Your #1 fans.

Carrie Blosser 17:03

So aside from all of the other busy things that you are already doing, do you have any other exciting projects that are coming up for you in the next year or so?

Theresa May 17:10

Yes. So the local union here, the musician’s union, has recently been doing a really fantastic job of reaching out to more members of the union, and just more people in the community. I think maybe it's probably not just any one specific union, but sometimes, you know, calling the same people for gigs is a thing that happens all around. So I'm really excited about our local union here in Cleveland, they are giving me an opportunity to perform my Classic, New, Borrowed, and Blue program that I did early of 2020. And I was really, really excited about that. It was the first time someone gave me a budget and just let me do whatever I wanted. And, like, it just reminds me at the time I was in grad school. And I had a fifth year trumpet recital that I did with my friend Stacy Miller who plays viola, and we had a smoke machine at our recital. And they allowed me to do that, it was nuts. We had a smoke machine and we, like, acted out a wrestling match playing chart as well, we did it as a duet, it was crazy. So if people give me money for a budget, and, like, tell me I can do whatever I want with it, it is going to be, like, amazing and kind of ridiculous. So I was able to put Classic, New, Borrowed, and Blue do just that, there was no smoke machine. But I had, you know lights, and it was everything was kind of blue lit. And it was really cool. I was able to feature Ahmed Alabaca, I performed all new music except for one piece, Night Song. Everything else was written and composed and arranged by Ahmed, and he was able to fly in and be there for us to premiere all of his wonderful brass trio work. So it was great. It was also the first time I was introduced to Regina Baiocchi’s music, my teacher, my undergrad teacher, Dr. Reynolds, who's still a big part of my musical life, he's one of my mentors now, I always go to him when I, like, need suggestions for rep. And he suggested that I check out a book called Brass Music of Black Composers. It's a huge book. It's over 400 pages with just lists and lists of names of composers and all the things they've written. So that's a really great resource. I was just, you know, thumbing through all the unaccompanied works, they have sections for different types of works. And I saw Regina Baiocchi’s piece called Miles Per Hour. So I also put that on my program, so I'm excited to have another opportunity to do that program again. This program will also feature at least two new works just this year. Sam Blakeslee is a trombone player who's going to write a trumpet and piano piece for me. And then Parker plays french horn. He's in my brass trio. They're in my brass trio. And they will be playing an accompanied piece by Shanyse Strickland, who's also a good friend of mine who's doing, like, ridiculously amazing things right now. It's crazy. So that is coming up, that is happening December 18, no smoke machine, but I'm also working on getting lights for that, and I'm also excited that the union has allowed me to pick whatever space I want to perform it in. So I'm able to perform it at a local art gallery called Spaces here in Cleveland. I’m into, like, kind of neutral spaces, I didn't really want to have it in a church, which is common, and I didn't want to have it in a bar. So the art gallery is just to my liking. So that's coming up. Mourning [A] Blkstar, we're going on tour in November. So that will be really cool. We'll be in Utah and Texas and Colorado. We're touring with a band called Cloud Nothings. So that is very cool. I have a recital at International Women's Brass Conference, so I'll be one of the guest soloists for CBC, excited to play more of Ahmed’s pieces, and I'll play Regina Baiocchi’s Miles Per Hour as well again, what else? Oh, I joined a trumpet consortium. I've never done this before. But, you know, it sounded cool. So the composer is Jonathan, Posthuma, I think is how I pronounce his last name, but he it has written a work. It's not complete yet. He's writing a work for trumpet and electronics. And there's 10 of us trumpet players who will premiere his piece. So I'll be working on that as well. I'm trying to figure out an exciting way to premiere it. I'm thinking of like, you know, a video of some sort to go along with the music. So I'll start working on that soon. And I have to perform that within a year. So it'll most likely come out next year sometime. I think those are all of my upcoming things.

Perfect sense as to why your day is detailed out about to the minute.

Yes.

Carrie Blosser 22:29

Well, we wish you the best of luck in all of your performances and packed houses for everything.

Theresa May 22:34

Thank you.

Carrie Blosser 22:36

All right, we are down to your very last question for today. We would love to know what is on your music stand this week, and how are you diversifying your stand?

Theresa May 22:46

All right. Well, luckily, I have my music stand right here. I was just warming up before this. So, I guess three things right now, I'm working on a cornet duet for CBC, one of our collabs, it's a Salvation Army cornet duet called Deliverance. So I realized that I must not have been practicing my triple tonguing lately. And this is really fast. And involves lots of triple tonguing. So I've been practicing that and Arban’s triple tonguing for a while, because I have that concert coming, the event coming up in December, the Miles Per Hour, I'm working that up again, Regina Harris Baiocchi’s Miles Per Hour. And the last thing, again, my event in December is featuring Ahmed Alabaca’s pieces. So I have one of his pieces here called Were You There on my stand as well. How am I diversifying my stand? Well, yeah, all those three pieces are really different. And two out of the three are by Black composers. Yeah, and I just purchased my Winds of Change. So there's that.

Carrie Blosser 24:03

Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us, Theresa.

Theresa May 24:06

Thank you so much for having me.

Ashley Killam 24:08

Thank you for listening to Diversify the Stand. I'm Ashley.

Carrie Blosser 24:11

And I'm Carrie. If you'd like to support us and our projects, find us on social media and visit our website. We now have a store where you can pick up some Diversify the Stand gear.

Ashley Killam 24:21

And as always, a huge thank you to Trevor Weston and Whitney George for allowing us to use their compositions in our podcast. The musical introduction is Trevor's trumpet duet Fanfare for Changes, and the ending music is Whitney's Incantations for trumpet and piano. Both composers’ websites are listed in the podcast description.

Carrie Blosser 24:39

Until next week, what's on your stand?